The invention relates generally to ink cartridges for ink jet printers, and in particular to an ink cartridge that includes a pocket for a memory chip.
The cross-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,926 entitled INK CARTRIDGE WITH MEMORY CHIP AND METHOD OF ASSEMBLING, disclose an ink cartridge that includes a pocket for a memory chip.
The disclosed ink cartridge includes a pair of housing portions with respective pocket portions including wall opening portions, an ink supply bag contained in the housing portions, and a memory chip supported in the wall opening portions. The housing portions mate to form a cartridge housing with the pocket portions forming a single pocket including the wall opening portions forming a single wall opening.
If per chance any ink leaks from an ink supply bag in the cartridge housing, it can enter the wall opening portions and contaminate a memory chip supported in the single pocket.
According to one aspect of the invention, an ink cartridge comprising a housing with an integral pocket including a wall opening, an ink supply bag contained in the housing, and a memory chip supported in the wall opening, is characterized in that:
the housing has an ink blocking shield arranged at a location between the bag and the memory chip to prevent any ink that might leak from the bag from entering the wall opening and contaminating the memory chip.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method of assembling an ink cartridge to include a memory chip in a single pocket comprises:
providing a pair of housing portions with respective pocket portions including wall opening portions and with respective ink blocking shield segments extending across the wall opening portions at inner sides of the housing portions;
mating the housing portions to form a cartridge housing with the pocket portions forming a single pocket including the wall opening portions forming a single wall opening and the ink blocking shield segments abutting edge-to-edge to seal the single wall opening; and
including a memory chip in the single pocket as the single pocket is formed.
According to another aspect of the invention, a pair of housing halves for containing an ink supply bag and provided with respective pocket portions including wall opening portions for a memory chip, are characterized in that:
the housing halves have respective ink blocking shield segments that extend across the wall opening portions at inner sides of the housing halves to prevent any ink that might leak from an ink bag contained in the housing halves from entering the wall opening portions and contaminating a memory chip supported in the wall opening portions.